picnic
/ˈpɪknɪk/
"picnic" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“picnic” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,647 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,647
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An informal social gathering, usually in a natural outdoor setting, to which the participants bring their own food and drink.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | picnic |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɪknɪk/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #9,647 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “picnic” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for picnic is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpɪknɪk/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,647 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for picnic, with forms such as "ipcnic", "pcinic", and "piccnic". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "picnics", "panic", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French pique-nique. The correct English form is picnic, spelled P-I-C-N-I-C.
Definition
- 1An informal social gathering, usually in a natural outdoor setting, to which the participants bring their own food and drink.
- 2The meal eaten at such a gathering.
- 3An easy or pleasant task.
- 4An entertainment at which each person contributed some dish to a common table.
- 5A cut of pork from the shoulder area (above the front leg) of a pig.
Etymology
Borrowed from French pique-nique.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ipcnic,pcinic,piccnic,picinc,picnci,picnicc,picnnic,pincic,ppicnic
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of picnic - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "picnic"?
What does "picnic" mean?
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Using “picnic”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-I-C-N-I-C - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpɪknɪk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “picnics” - see the side-by-side comparison. picnic vs picnics
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.